Apple Inc's chief patent counsel will soon leave the company. Richard Lutton Junior manages the iPad and iPod maker's patent portfolio. It is unclear why Lutton is leaving the company.
Patents have experienced a surge in value and attention in Silicon Valley, with Apple part of a group that received court approval to buy wireless patents from bankrupt Nortel Networks Corp for $4.5 billion. Microsoft Corp, Research in Motion Ltd, Apple and three other tech companies successfully banded together to outbid Google for the Nortel patents.
